Shoes Worn by the Dead Never Fit

Xuan stood before the transmitter's cold metal casing, his fingertips seeming to still retain the rough, warm feel of Raiga's leather forehead protector.

The telegram he had just sent in Raiga's name had been meticulously disguised down to every byte, perfect to the point of being inhuman.

There was none of the exhaustion following battle, none of the regret for fallen comrades, and none of Raiga's characteristic flashes of human hesitation that occasionally surfaced amid his rigorous wording.

It was like a battle report written by a precision machine—calm, efficient, yet utterly devoid of a soul.

Xuan knew full well that Hidden Leaf Village's sharp-nosed intelligence analysts would detect the fatal anomaly in this "perfection" within twelve hours at most.

Time was his scarcest resource at the moment.

Before Hidden Leaf Village's review system fully activated, he had to complete a crucial devouring.

His target was in the rear isolation zone—a Hidden Mist Village elite jonin who had fallen into a deep coma after being contaminated by Ten-Tails chakra.

Not only was this man's own chakra pure and abundant, but a trace of thin yet violent Tailed Beast Cloak energy also remained in his body.

In this chaotic battlefield, there was no finer "supplement" than this.

Xuan lowered the conical hat on his head, its brim casting a shadow over most of his face and revealing only a cold, hard line of jaw.

He raced along the rugged supply passage without a sound, like a phantom merging into the night.

Along the way, a temporary tent glowing with dim yellow light caught his attention. It was the registration station for lightly wounded soldiers under Oda Kaori's charge.

The tent flap had not been fully drawn shut, leaving a narrow gap.

Xuan did not slow for even a moment, but from the corner of his eye, his scarlet three-tomoe Sharingan took in everything inside.

Oda Kaori was lowering her head as she sorted through the wounded roster. Under the dim oil lamp, the fingers holding her pen trembled faintly beyond her control.

Her gaze occasionally drifted toward the corner of the table, where half a charred scrap of paper lay pinned down—it was the diary fragment Xuan had deliberately left behind during the "accident."

He was gambling, and he was laying the groundwork.

He knew that this conflicted medical ninja suspected him, suspected Raiga's identity.

But he knew even more clearly that someone like Oda Kaori would never rashly report a war hero with illustrious merits to the higher-ups without conclusive proof.

And so long as she remained silent, that suspicion would take root in her heart and eventually grow into a towering tree called distrust.

She would begin to question the system, question the meaning of war, question everything she had held fast to.

The value of dismantling her from within far exceeded simply taking her in as a subordinate.

Before long, the outline of the isolation zone appeared ahead.

Two broad, tall Hidden Cloud Village chunin stood at the entrance with their arms crossed, like twin iron towers. A faint ring of chakra fluctuations around the perimeter proved the existence of a rudimentary sensory barrier.

Xuan did not choose to force his way in. That would leave traces too troublesome to erase.

His figure flickered as he circled to the downwind side. Using the night breeze as cover, several wisps of nearly invisible black mist silently spilled from his fingertips.

The black mist drifted with the wind and seeped soundlessly into the barrier.

In an instant, the vision of Inferno Perception unfolded in his mind.

He immediately locked onto the Hidden Mist Village jonin's life force—it was extremely weak, yet as steady as a dying candle in the wind. His soul was in a strange state of partial separation.

A cold, precise system prompt surfaced:

[Target detected within "high absorption efficiency window."]

The timing was perfect.

Xuan emerged from the shadows and approached the entrance with steady steps.

The two Hidden Cloud Village chunin immediately looked over warily, their hands already resting on the hilts at their waists.

"By Lord Raiga's order, I'm here to transfer the severely contaminated individual." Xuan's voice was hoarse and low. He took a scroll from his robes. It bore not only a flawless imitation of Raiga's handwriting, but more importantly, he had used black mist to simulate a trace of Raiga's distinctive chakra signature, imbued with the violent aura of Lightning Release.

One guard accepted the scroll and examined it suspiciously.

The instant he lowered his head in hesitation, Xuan's right palm had already lightly pressed against the other guard's shoulder like a ghost.

Black mist silently seeped into the man's body through Xuan's palm. Xuan's voice seemed to sound directly within his mind. "Don't make a sound. I'm only here to ease his pain, so he can go peacefully."

The guard's entire body stiffened, and he instantly lost control of himself.

Xuan entered the isolation tent, walked to the Hidden Mist Village jonin's bedside, and pressed his palm against the man's forehead without hesitation.

"Devouring initiated: residual Tailed Beast Cloak energy detected. Activating special analysis path..."

"Warning: energy nature is extremely violent. Forced suppression in progress..."

"Extraction successful: obtained [Tailed Beast Transformation: Novice Tolerance Template]."

An indescribably scorching torrent of chakra surged into Xuan's meridians like lava bursting through a broken dam!

That energy was filled with the will of destruction and hatred, madly scouring every inch of his body as if it intended to burn him into ashes from the inside out.

Veins bulged across Xuan's forehead from the agonizing pain, yet his face remained as calm as an ancient well. Even the rhythm of his breathing did not change.

He slowly withdrew his hand and spoke softly to the controlled guard outside the tent. "He has been freed."

The moment those words fell, the Hidden Mist Village jonin's pupils suddenly dilated, and his faint heartbeat fell completely silent.

The other guard outside the tent finally sensed that something was wrong. He cried out and rapidly formed hand seals with both hands, preparing to sound the alarm.

But it was too late. Xuan had prepared for this.

His left hand flashed through the opening seal for Earth Release: Rock Prison. It was merely a feint, intended to disrupt the other man's rhythm.

The Sharingan had long since seen through every trajectory of chakra flowing through the guard's body. The instant a gap of 0.3 seconds appeared in his hand seals, Xuan moved.

His figure appeared between the two guards as though he had teleported. Both palms shot out, and dense black mist wrapped around their throats like venomous snakes.

Before they could even scream, their souls and chakra were simultaneously stripped away and devoured.

"Devouring complete. Obtained basic sensory barrier-breaking knowledge +1, chakra +55."

Xuan efficiently dragged the three still-warm corpses into the underground drainage ditch behind the isolation zone. Several thick, decaying Wood Release roots sprouted from his fingertips, binding the bodies tightly together with the sludge and concealing them completely.

Then, he flicked a tiny spark from his fingertip and set one corner of the tent ablaze.

A modest "accidental fire" was enough to erase everything that had happened here.

On his way back, he once again detoured through the communications station.

He skillfully connected to the line and, once more in Raiga's name, sent a supplementary order to the Allied Forces headquarters: "An anomaly has appeared in the lower reaches of the Naka River. An ancient poison curse is suspected. Those who come into contact with it will suffer mental breakdowns and show signs of killing one another. It is recommended that the area be immediately designated a highest-level restricted zone and completely sealed off."

This move killed two birds with one stone.

It would not only delay the Allied Forces' entry into the Naka River Shrine ruins as much as possible, buying him a precious period of growth, but also lay down a layer of mystery and terror for the future legend of "Uchiha Xuan's resurrection."

When later generations eventually discovered that Progenitor ruin, they would only believe it to be the awakening of some ancient curse. They would never imagine that behind it all stood nothing more than a living, breathing predator.

In the darkest hour before dawn, Xuan hid inside an abandoned granary at the edge of the battlefield.

A cold system interface appeared before him:

[Energy Reserve: 298/300]

[New fusion template available: Tailed Beast Transformation: Novice Tolerance]

He was only one final point away from his next transformation.

He sat down cross-legged, preparing to fuse with that violent template.

At that moment, his eyelids twitched slightly. His ears caught a hurried series of faint footsteps in the distance, mixed with the low panting of a beast.

A Hidden Leaf Village elite squad led by a sensory ninja hound was accurately closing in on the granary along the nearly imperceptible chakra trail he had left behind!

Clearly, the second "supplementary telegram" he had sent had finally triggered Hidden Leaf Village's higher-level emergency verification mechanism.

They had arrived even sooner than expected.

Yet there was not the slightest hint of panic on Xuan's face. Instead, a cold curve rose at the corner of his lips.

He slowly stood and muttered to himself, his voice carrying the excitement of a hunter spotting prey. "You came at just the right time."

The next instant, ink-black mist wound around his entire body. A strange woody texture emerged across his skin, and his body slowly sank into the solid earth as though blending into flowing water, vanishing from sight.

A true hunter never waited in the open for prey to come to him.

He would turn this pursuit into a slaughter in reverse.